Blowhard

Blaming Obama for forecasts on Hurricane Isaac and calling Sandra Fluke ‘a slut’ are among the latest wild-eyed charges by the radio host. Here are some of Rush’s most outrageous remarks.

08.28.122:20 PM ET

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Suggesting the Obama administration meddled with Hurricane Isaac forecasts to make the GOP cancel part of its convention and calling Sandra Fluke a ‘slut’ are just the radio host’s latest zingers. From equating Obama with Hitler to likening Hillary Clinton to a ‘screeching ex-wife,’ here are Rush’s 20 most outrageous remarks.

1. Obama Faked Forecast

The way Limbaugh sees it, the Obama administration probably messed with the forecasts for Hurricane Isaac to stop the GOP from having a full convention. Who controls the Hurricane Center, asked Limbaugh? "It's the government,” he mused. “It's Obama." Limbaugh was quick to note he doesn’t believe there is a conspiracy here, but he also said having to cancel the first day of the Republican convention works out well for the Democrats. What made him suspicious? The forecast for Isaac veered away from Tampa as soon as the GOP called off the first night of its convention, according to Limbaugh. “I'm just telling you, folks, when you put this all together in this timeline, I'm telling you, it's unbelievable," the radio host opined.

2. Bane is Bain

In a summer when the Obama campaign is hammering Mitt Romney on his record at Bain Capital, Rush Limbaugh discovered a new angle in the debate, noting that Bane, the arch-villain in the new Batman movie, sounded eerily similar to Mitt Romney’s old company. “The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012, for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire-breathing, four-eyed whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane?” the talk show host asked on his show. He went on to say that most people who see the movie will be “brain-dead” and “the thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain—Romney and Bain—that these people will think back to the Batman movie, ‘Oh, yeah, I know who that is.’” After a wave of criticism, Limbaugh clarified the statements, saying, “I didn’t say there was a conspiracy. I said the Democrats were going to use it.” For the record, Bane first appeared in Batman in 1993.

3. Tracie McMillan Is ‘Overeducated’

Limbaugh has lost nearly two dozen advertisers since his attack on Sandra Fluke, so you might think he would tone down the whole misogynist angle on his show. You’d be wrong. On Tuesday, he targeted another young woman, Tracie McMillan, who spent a year working low-paying jobs in the food industry and reflects on the experience in her new book, The American Way of Eating. He grouped the author “with all these young single white women” who, he said, are “overeducated”—but not necessarily intelligent! He pointed out that she’s been “seems to be just out of college and already she has been showered with awards, including the 2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism … This woman wrote the book on food inequality, food justice, got an award for social justice journalism.”

4. Terrorist Must Be an Obama Fan

In May 2010, Limbaugh claimed that the failed Times Square car bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was a registered Democrat. “I wonder if his SUV had an Obama sticker on it," he added. The only problem with that explosive claim? Shahzad wasn’t registered to vote.

5. Feminism Is for ‘Unattractive Women’

We’re surprised this one isn’t higher up on Limbaugh’s list of “35 Undeniable Truths of Life.” Ranking at 24:“Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.” If it weren’t for feminism, the “unattractive women” would have been outcast from society like lepers, the attractive ones would all have been submissive to men, and the world according to Rush Limbaugh would be a better place.

When disaster strikes in the U.S.—whether it’s a terrorist attack, a tornado, or an oil-rig explosion—Limbaugh likes blame Obama and all the other liberals in America who share his views. Take, for instance, Limbaugh’s finger-pointing over the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There’s always a chance that Obama and his fellow “environmentalist wackos” deliberately blew up the oil rig because they opposed offshore drilling. “Since they’re sending SWAT teams to inspect the oil rigs, what better way to head off more drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig?” Rush speculated. “I’m just noting the timing here.”

Here’s something you might not have known about Obama’s health-care-reform plan: it’s designed to kill off the elderly. At least that was an argument put forth in 2009 by two House GOP leaders, who warned in a statement that the reform bill “might start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.” Limbaugh ran with the argument and somehow arrived at the conclusion that Democrats have a lot in common with Nazis. It all started when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said people protesting outside the health-care town halls were wearing swastikas. Limbaugh launched into a diatribe on the real Nazis: “They [Democrats] accuse us of being Nazis, and Obama’s got a health-care logo that’s right out of Hitler’s book.” Oh, and the Nazis were also against big business. he said. At the end of a lengthy rant, he concluded that “Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate.”

11. Hillary Clinton ‘Sounds Like a Screeching Ex-Wife’

Ah, Rush’s favorite target: liberal women in politics. Discussing Hillary Clinton’s potential presidential run during a radio segment in March 2006, Limbaugh tried to backpedal on his incendiary comment—sort of. “There’s nothing against ex-wives or women. I’m just trying to be descriptive for you. Men will know what I mean by this.” The “danger a Hillary presidency would pose,” plus the sound of her voice, was just too much for Limbaugh to take.

In the 1970s, Limbaugh was known as Jeff Christie. He hosted a Top 40 music show in Pittsburgh, but somehow he managed to slip racial slurs into his program. As he struggled to understand a black caller, he told the person on the other end of the line to “take that bone out of your nose and call me back.” When asked about the comment decades later, Limbaugh professed that he is “the least racist host you’ll ever find.”

In August 2010, then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said in a closed-door strategy session that liberal groups should not run attack ads against conservative Democrats who did not support the president’s health-care overhaul, calling it “f--king retarded.” But word leaked out that Emanuel had used the word retard, and the president’s brash sidekick faced harsh criticism for his choice of words. Sarah Palin called on Emanuel to resign over the comment. Limbaugh, however, saw no issue with Emanuel’s choice of words. “Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards ... There’s going to be a retard summit at the White House,” he said.

16. Yankees Owner Made Many Black Millionaires

After Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died, Limbaugh toned down his praise for America’s “classic capitalist” by complaining that the boss had helped a lot of black people earn a good living. “That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires.” Not only that, Limbaugh said, “he fired a lot of white guys,” too.

17. Haiti Earthquake Plays ‘Right Into Obama’s Hands’

One day after a calamitous earthquake shook Haiti in January 2010, Limbaugh took to the air to predict that Obama and his team would use the crisis “to burnish their credibility with the black community.” The earthquake, Limbaugh said, would “play right into Obama’s hands,” and would help the president project a “compassionate” and “humanitarian” image. When a listener called in to complain that the government was directing people to donate through the White House website—instead of going directly to the Red Cross’s website—Limbaugh lambasted Americans who had been moved by the tragedy to help a nation in peril. “We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax,” Limbaugh said, adding, “You can’t keep throwing money at it.”

18. Michelle Obama’s a Big Fat Hypocrite

Limbaugh was quick to criticize first lady Michelle Obama’s nutritional campaign, targeting her waistline in his attack. “It doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice. And then we hear that she’s out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving,” Limbaugh said, referencing a meal Mrs. Obama ate while on vacation in Colorado with her family, minus the president. “She’s a hypocrite,” he added. According to the Vail Daily, the first lady actually dined on rather healthful fare, ordering “a pickled pumpkin salad with arugula and a braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy wild mushrooms and sautéed kale.”

19. Black People to Blame for Hurricane Katrina Chaos

Weighing in on the chaos that ensued in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Limbaugh declared, “It’s not George Bush’s fault!” While Bush admitted his administration’s inability to deal with the chaos, Limbaugh blamed it on black people who “wanted to rape and loot!” He continued: “We’ve had these problems ever since the Emancipation Proclamation. Once the whites leave town, all you’ve got is overwhelming lawlessness.”

20. Dems Anointed Sherrod Brown Because He Is ‘Black’

Rush spiced up his Valentine’s Day broadcast in 2004 by inventing a racial twist to the Ohio Democratic Senate primary race. The day before, Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett withdrew from the contest, citing Democratic leaders’ wishes to have seven-term Rep. Sherrod Brown fill the vacant seat. Limbaugh was convinced that Brown had been anointed because he was black. “And don’t forget, Sherrod Brown is black. There’s a racial component here, too. And now, the newspaper that I’m reading all this from is The New York Times, and they, of course, don’t mention that.” Unfortunately for Rush, Brown is white.

21. Women Like ‘Male Chauvinist Pigs’

For once, Limbaugh was spot-on when summed up his attitude toward women in 2004, speaking on behalf of himself and other “chauvinist pigs.” But he failed to make the connection that chauvinists invariably objectify women and view them as unequal. “We’re not sexists, we’re chauvinists,” he said. “We’re male chauvinist pigs and we’re happy to be because we think that’s what men were destined to be. We think that’s what women want.”